Tricot seedlings

princesskatja(8 WA)March 18, 2005

I have a brugmansia seedling that has emerged as a tricotyledon(it has three seed leaves).

I did a search on the Forum and elsewhere and it seems that when this happens, it's the plant equivalent of a twin, perhaps a conjoined twin? Everything else about the seedling appears normal; stalk looks healthy and stout. I am very curious to see how it develops.

Anyone else encountered these sorts of variations? I'm sure it's not uncommon. What other plant species tend to do this?

I posted a detailed reply to your post on the brugmansia forum under the key word "tricot".
Self the flowers of the tricot seedling and let me know what the ratio of the first generation tricots to regular seedlings. I selfed a tricot marigold and the ratio went from 1 in 43 seedlings being a tricot in the regular population of marigolds to 1 in 13 tricots in the selfed tricots's seedlings.

Yes, it is called apomyxis and is common in citrus. Although most of the small seedlings thus obtained have only half the normal chromosomes and don't do as well as a single seed. It happens if a flower is not pollinated. Self pollination is when you take the pollen from a plants stamens and puts them on the pistol of the same plant. Look at the FAQ of how to pollinate a tomatoe. Im a self taught plant breeder and nursery salesman for 30 yrs now.

Yes this has happened to my kale plants the kale on the left was a mutated tricot n the kale on the right is a regular dicot if u notice the tricot kale is not as big which leads me to believe it is a dwarf maybe but even though it is smaller it is growing great n I don't notice any pros or cons yet and yes I'm gonna bag the flower stalk an self this kale haha I will let u guys know if I remember on how the plants do..

The tricot kale one the left has a much deeper blue greenish color much darker than the regular dicots which leads me to believe its healthier than the others. I will post a picture later on when I obtain a recent one.